Providence Journal, November 12, 2005

By Paul Grimaldi

Journal Staff Writer

Walking billborads make small succeed

PROVIDENCE--Maybe the state's promoters are right--it is all about the ocean.

For decades, various state marketing efforts have relied on Rhode Island's seaside location to recruit and retain skilled workers and business owners.

In Gene Willis' case, state leaders needn't have worried about him leaving Rhode Island behind.

Willis, of Narragansett, spent 35 years working as a sales manager for a Wisconsin-based wholesale footwear company.  He criss-crossed the country repeatedly, flying 50,000 to 60,000 miles a year.  But he always returned to his office and home in Rhode Island.

" I enjoyed being at the beach all the time," said Willis, who grew up in Providence.

When the company wanted him to change locales, he decided to switch careers.

"There was pressure on me to move the division to Wisconsin," he said in a telephone interview.  "I was getting tired of traveling."

Instead, he negotiated a contract buyout with the shoe firm in late 2001 and started his own business the following year.

A little more than three years later Willis, now 60, is being honored for the effort he's putting into Narragansett Accessories Co., the company he founded in 2002.

On Wednesday evening, Willis will be at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston to receive an award as the state's Minority Small Business Person of the Year from the Rhode Island office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The awards dinner is one of the activities taking place during the annual Rhode Island Minority Enterprise Development Week.

Since 1983, the U.S. has proclaimed a Minority Enterprise Week to recognise the achievements of minority buisness enterprises.

Minority Enterprise Week activities will be held next week in Rhode Island.  The events are sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce of Rhode Island.

A business expo featuring more than 70 minority-owned small businesses, financial lending institutions and other resource organizations will precede next week's dinner in Cranston.

The Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce of Rhode Island, the Center for Women and Enterprise, the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation,as well as state and city agencies also, will present awards during next week's dinner.

An SBA Special Achievement Award will go to Marcellus Sharpe, president of CC Business Corporation Providence.  SBA Minority Lending Awards will go to Citizen's Bank, The Washington Trust Co. and Sovereign Bank.

But Willis, an African-American, will get the chief honor as the businessman of the year, an award he hopes will help him grow the company he runs with his wife, Joan, from an office on Boston Neck Road.

Narragansett Accessories is a distributor of promotional  products that companies and organizations use to commemorate special events, marketing campaigns and other activities.  Willis' company can affix a logo or slogan to just about anything: hats, bags, pens, glasses, over 600,000 items in all.

Among Willis' clients are South County Hospital, WJAR-Channel 10, Lila Delman Real Estate, Churchill & Banks Ltd. and the State of Rhode Island.

Willis' community service has helped him drum up some of that business.  Since moving to Narragansett in 1986, he's been active in the town's Lions Club, once serving as president, and chairman of the town's Democratic Party.

He designs the logos used for the annual Blessing of the Fleet in Galilee, which is sponsored by the Lion's Club.

Narragansett Accessories will book more than $300,000 in sales this year--enough for him to start recruiting part-time sales help.

But he's not going to venture far to drum up business.

"My traveling is going to be limited to 20 to 25 miles," he said.  "I could make a very good living just doing business in Rhode Island."